Hardship, result of mismanagement by previous administrations —Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria is facing serious challenges due to manifold corruption and mismanagement of resources by previous administrations saying that is why the present government put in place measures to check the hydra-headed monster.

Buhari who spoke through the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo at the graduation of Executive Course 39 at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State mentioned Treasury Single Account (TSA) as one of the measures to curb financial recklessness and leakages.

He said the directive that all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should open one account where federal revenues will go to has yielded positive results adding that government is now sure of what it has in the account as ghost workers have been flushed out or reduced to the barest minimum, while money is being saved.

The president who said it is because of the economic measures taken by government to tackle corruption head-on that Nigeria is exiting from financial recession added that government has made agriculture its focus in order to diversify the economy, while the economy is stabilising.

He expressed confidence that the naira will continue to appreciate.

“We are where we are today because of our failure to invest. I’m happy that the price of rice has dropped drastically while all the moribund fertilizer plants have been revived,” he said.

He asserted that government is seeing 2018 as the year of many plans as government is encouraging more industries thereby creating jobs for the teeming unemployed citizens of the country.

On security, he said government is doing all it could to cage and crush the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgency in the country, while appealing to the people to be religious tolerant.

To the participants, Buhari urged them to deploy the knowledge gained at the institute to help the nation in whatever capacity they find themselves, admitting that government is aware of the hardship the institute is facing and is committed to addressing the myriad of problems.

The acting Director-General of NIPSS, Mr. Jonathan Juma, congratulated the 66 participants on their successful completion of their course.

Juma appealed to government to approve special financial intervention for the Institute to enable it to address the catalogue of issues confronting it.